sorry not much of electronics buff. Just have a 18 month old aerial with the 40 wing UHF atennna at top and the VHF antenna below, both connect to a little gray box below the VHF antenna. the box has 5 slots for cables, two go in from each antenna and then one comes out and goes thru the roof inside. The amplier plug into the indoor wall socket is a Hills PSU4P 15vac 100mA.

I think so, coz the picture fulls the screen on digital vs. analogue which only fills the middle of the screen and the qauality of the HD filmed programmes on Tv 1, 2 and FV HD demo are pretty dam good. I thought the digital freeview HD channels were only picked up on UHF antenna? Just wish i could get the signals a 100% of the time for the weaker channels other than TV1,2,6,7.

I had a look around my Blenheim neighbourhood and i see 2 houses have the 91 element (wing) UHF aerial, presumably they trying to pick up all the freeview channels.

bfginger: Are you able to receive analogue UHF stations like Maori and Prime? Does the UHF aerial point towards Kaukau in Wellington? There must be a reason why the UHF aerial was installed in the first place.

http://lincrad.co.nz/transmittersites.html

If it is only a 40 element UHF aerial that sounds too small for a marginal reception area. There are much stronger units available. Perhaps you could take a photo of it?

I thought the digital freeview HD channels were only picked up on UHF antenna?

VHF aerials can pick up UHF signals but not as well as a UHF aerial as they're only designed for VHF.

Thanks for the transmitter link, my uhf antenna (see pic) points directly at Kaukau transmitter and picks up analogue prime amd marori fine (with previously mentioned booster). The vhf points towards the wither hills transmitter, that appears to beam out only TV 1,2,3. Yes, i asked wen the house was built 2 yrs ago that i wanted an aearial that could get prime, maori, but wasn't thinking ahead to freeview | HD...

So, looks like a bigger uhf aerial is the way to go to pick up the rest of the uhf digital channels that keep dropping out (tv3, c4, c42, tv3 plus, prime & maori digital, chinesetv, radio nz etc.)?? Thanks.

I just have the standard size UHF aerial as shown in the pic from earlier post. Depending on weather conditions and singal strength u can sometimes (5%) pic up all FV channels, like for example this past weekend i was getting all 17 FV channels). but 90% of time i just get digital TVNZ 1, 2, 6 & 7. I presume if i buy a large UHF aerial - one of those 91 element giants that would pic up and augment more signal.

Question: Could both the standard and giant UHF aerial be both connected and used to pic up freeview HD channels. ie. does two aerials pic up and augment more signal than just one?

Had a trial with a 91 element aerial (19db) and an amp. Can pick up the HD test channel only, and even then it breaks up from time to time. So no go for Blenheim, unless whoever controls the sites switches the KauKau Prime/Maori/Trackside feed to marlborough over to DVBT. Apparently the HD broadcasts come off the opposite side of the tower, putting most of marlborough in a signal hole.

Thanks for the update. by HD test channel are u meaning the freewview|HD demo channel 100? I'm still getting bits of freeview off and on. Chatted with guy at Blenheim electric, they have 91 element UHF aerial and get freeview, but it breaks up in afternoons. He mentioned he was going to try a phased array UHF aerial, doesn't look like hes got it up yet.

I note recent announcements in the media that analogue TV will cease around 2013 and that Freeview|HD broadcasting will be increased to another 10 cities/regions around New Zealand in time for the RWC (Rugby world cup). Those cities/regions to include: Whangarei, Rotorua, Taupo, Gisborne, Taranaki, Wanganui, Wairarapa, Nelson, Timaru and Invercargill as detailed at:

http://www.freeviewnz.tv/all_about_freeview/page/digital_switch_over

The expansion will increase the population of NZ able to receive terrestrial Freeview|HD to 87%. This means, however, that Marlborough is relegated to the bottom 13% of New Zealand and will be 'left in dark' from receiving digital high definition free to air television indefinitely. Blenheim and the greater Marlborough region has a population base comparable to Timaru and Gisborne yet appears have been left out of consideration for inclusion in the expansion of Freeview|HD network.

I believe the role out of terrestrial UHF Freewview|HD is proving quite problematic for the New Zealand public. Since the inception of Freewview|HD about 2 years ago they said quite categorically that the UHF broadcasting of Freeview|HD would only be setup to cover the major regions of Auckland, Hamilton, Napier, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin (approximately 75% of NZ population). The rest of New Zealand would have to buy satellite dishes and decoders (cost approx $500 + installation) to receive the SD (standard definition) version of Freeview, including residents of the 10 regions mentioned earlier. However, Freeview has now decided (with more govt funding) to expand further as detailed above, putting residents in those 10 regions who have already invested into SD Freeview (satellite dishes and decoders + installation) at a financial disadvantage. To avoid a similar fate for the Marlborough public we need to first get the Govt and Freeview to commit to including Marlborough in its expansion of the network and, second, commit to clear timeframe for this. Another compelling reason to push for Freewview|HD is the fact that the vast Majority of Marlborough homes (like the rest of New Zealand) are already setup to receive Freeview|HD because they already have UHF aerials, an investment the public made back in 1990's to receive Prime and Maori TV which are broadcasted on the UHF frequencies like Freeview|HD is today.

There could easily be 100% DVB-T coverage if New Zealand was as flat as Holland but as coverage goes towards 100% the number of broadcasting sites and costs would rapidly expand. The number of sites required to give TVNZ's near 100% coverage over analogue is shocking.

TVNZ and Mediaworks are being run as businesses. Numbers will have been crunched and the business case for expanding DVB-T won't be there. Probably 60% of the remaining 13% already have Sky. People who have Sky watch the Freeview stations 60% of the time. The poor quality of Freeview Satellite would probably only motivate 1/5th to subscribe to SkyHDi. So the cost of increasing DVB-T coverage to something approaching the current level of analogue would only boost ratings by 1 or 2%

They should have started broadcasting Freeview|HD over the full 87% 18 months ago and it may have been a bad mistake to go for MPEG-2 over MPEG-4 for Freeview Satellite. But even if they went for MPEG-4 on the satellite, they may've used the additional bandwidth to provide more regionalised advertising, and the quality would be little better.

Don't be surprised if expansion of Freeview|HD becomes an election issue in 2014.